I’ve come across quite a few people recently who have mistakenly believed that because they have submitted their website sitemap to Google, that all their pages will automatically be indexed.  They waste hours searching for the keywords they have used on their pages and blog posts to see which page they will appear on in Google, then end up frustrated because they can’t find their page.

Unfortunately just because you submit your sitemap to Google, it doesn’t mean that Google will automatically index your pages.  There is even more bad news!  When you create articles and submit them to article directories, expecting a backlink to be automatically created once your article is approved, some of these articles won’t be indexed either.

There is no point spending time and/or money on creating backlinks to your website or creating content for your website if they are not getting indexed by Google.

Even if your website is the most highly search engine optimized page ever created for your keyword, if it’s not indexed then you won’t receive even ONE visitor to your website.

So how do you know which pages are indexed and which are not?  Well in Google Webmaster Tools, you get to see the number of pages that are contained in your sitemap and how many are actually indexed, but it doesn’t tell you what pages these are.  Not only that, there is no way to tell which of your promotional content that you’ve created for article directories and other web 2.0 sites have been indexed either.

There is a solution!

My friend Andy Black has created a fantastic little application to tell you in a few clicks which pages on your website still need indexed, as well as the status of your articles on Ezine Articles and GoArticles, to name just 2, as well as your Squidoo lenses and Hubpages,as well as other web 2.0 sites.  It is so simple to use and he is selling it for only $7!

I’ve been using it for a while now and it has really helped me focus my attention on getting pages indexed, as well as finding out which sites are better for indexing in Google quickly and which ones need a little nudge!

When you download Index Checker, you’ll get an instruction manual that I’ve created as I think everyone who has an online business needs this great tool.

First of all what is Google Alerts?  Google Alerts is another great service from Google where you can check out what other people are saying about a variety of things.  You can set up alerts for keywords, brands, your name, your local area, infact anything you can think about.  Once you’ve set up your keyword or keyword phrase, Google will then email you with all the information you’ve requested, without you having to go searching for it.  It can be hugely useful for a number of different things, and I’m sure you’ll be able to think of even more uses for it.

When setting up your Google Alerts you can choose where Google searches for the information.  You can choose news, blogs, web, video, groups or comprehensive (a mix of all the other methods).  If you are a blogger and you want to find blogs to comment on and be seen as an expert in your field, then you can search through the blogs and see who is also blogging about your topic.  Perhaps you want to keep on track of the latest Google group activity and to see which groups are discussing your topic, you can just set it up in your Google Alerts and let the information flow through to you.

You also have a choice about how often the information is emailed to you.  If you are just starting out and you want to keep an eye out on what people are saying about you or your business then you can set up a daily email, or for less urgent information, weekly emails.  If, however, you are needing up to date information, as quickly as possible for some reason, then there is the option to be emailed as often as it happens.  Just watch your email inbox with this as it may get very full, very quickly!

One way to stop your inbox being inundated with emails, is to set up your settings for your alerts to flow into a feed that you can read on Google Reader instead.  Then if you have your iGoogle page set up as your home page, you can then keep a close eye on the alerts that are coming through.

Although when starting out you may be unsure about why you would want to use Google Alerts, but it’s good to get into the habit of receiving alerts on your field of expertise so you can keep up to date with everything.  Perhaps you are focusing on a new niche and you want to find out more about it and what the competition is like in that field.  You can even set up alerts with the keyword being your competition to see what they are up to online.  Remember your competitors can easily do the same to you!

It’s interesting what can turn up in your Google alerts so start testing them today!

Google has revamped quite a bit about how they rank websites and the different ways a website can be ranked.  Google seems to be putting more emphasis on local listings and if  you have a local business then this can be a great thing.  You can now use Google’s own tools to get to the top of Google’s local listings.

You may be forgiven for thinking that if you have a mainly international business that being listed locally isn’t really what you want to be doing.  However, if you are listed on even page 10 of Google for your main keyword, chances are you won’t be getting much traffic, if any.  Now by making sure that your website is listed in Google’s local listings, you can jump up a few pages and even land on page 1 for any local searches relating to your website.

This is a HUGE benefit for any business and the fact that it’s a free resource provided by Google, every business owner who has a website should get listed.  Also, by checking out who else is listed on here, you can find out who your local competitors are and if you want to get more involved in your local business community, you can easily check them out.

How do you get listed?  I’ve compiled a step by step guide that you get here:  Google Local Business Results